Usually, it's
my dad who writes these press releases, but since this is a project I
thought Boy Scouts could get involved in, we thought maybe I should
write it. Every week, as a Scout in Brookfield's Troop 135, I pledge to
be "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent"...and by helping people
made homeless by Hurricane Katrina, I can be helpful, friendly, and
kind! At least!

The Danbury
Habitat affiliate is planning to send a group of volunteers to
Biloxi, Mississippi, in February or March, so I asked my dad what the
people there needed. "Building materials," he said...which made me
remember when I was maybe eight years old (now I'm 12), and signed some
2x4's for Habitat at Home Depot. It was a fund-raiser: for $10 people
could sign lumber that went into a Habitat house -- and a few weeks
later, I saw my name in the actual house, on Rowan Street in Danbury!

That was cool
-- what you wrote being in a Habitat house forever! So I thought we
could raise money for Biloxi Habitat homes, doing the same thing. My dad
said that was a great idea, and that maybe we could get a *lot* of
Scouts involved. So he approached the whole Scatacook District of Scouts
(Danbury,
Ridgefield, Redding, Newtown, New Fairfield, Sherman, Bethel,
Brookfield), and they thought it was a great idea, too. The leaders
signed a piece of lumber at their January meeting, and my dad says he'll
drive it down himself, if it's the only lumber we get!!!! But we're
hoping someone will lend us a pick-up truck, or maybe even give us one,
which would be even better!

Anyway, what
we're doing is holding lumber-signings in February in local churches and
businesses, and (we hope) in stores with big parking lots, like Home
Depot and at the Mall. And we'll probably have extra lumber at the local
Habitat building sites, too (on
Golden Hill Road and Town Hill Road, in Danbury, where volunteers work
on Thursday and Saturday). So I hope a lot of people will come by and
sign some lumber!

We also have a
website (http://home.earthlink.net/~mmgoodrich/),
and I'm putting together a Power Point presentation, too. And maybe we
can ask people to buy 2x4s on their own, and take them to their
businesses, and schools, and clubs, and raise money that way! If we
raise $50,000, people here can say they built an entire house in Biloxi!

[["Dad" here.
Yeah, I helped Matthew
a bit with this release...but he really *is* excited about this project,
and with actually *doing* something about Katrina ! I hope not to
disappoint him! This could be a Brookfield
story, or a Danbury-wide story -- the Scout leaders seem very
enthusiastic about taking this idea "big"!! I can give you names...]]

Housatonic
Habitat is currently working on its 14th house in the
Danbury area. The national organization, Habitat for Humanity
International, completed its 200,000th house in August 2005.